The annual memorial march for Boris Nemzow was well attended again this year. More than 22,000 people took part in the first real winter weather this year in Moscow. Despite everything, the organizers had expected somewhat more crowds. According to the calculation, the more people are on the street, the more reserved the Kremlin is.
On February 27, five years ago, Boris Nemtsov was struck down on the Great Bridge over the Moskva River by a Chechen murderer under the Kremlin wall and under broken surveillance cameras. The masterminds were never identified, only the hired murderers were convicted and sentenced in 2017.
Nemtsov was not only Russia’s best-known opposition and opponent Vladimir Putin. Before moving to the opposition in Nizhny Novgorod, he had held the office of governor and later worked as a Russian vice-premier under President Boris Yeltsin.
He had been part of the Russian nomenclature, which punished dissenters but did not get them out of the way until then. Despite everything, there was still a hint of a corps spirit. This relentlessness was also a new signal at the time.
No forgive no Forget
The crowd did not reach the Kremlin for a sign on Saturday. Rather, it was the call of an upright crowd that “never forgets and never forgives”, as it repeatedly stated in chants.
There were many among the demonstrators who called for the tough judgments in the “Moscow affair” to be overturned. Dozens of protesters were arrested and convicted last summer for protesting that their candidates had not been admitted to the Moscow elections.
“Russia without Putin” and “Russia will be free,” chanted the marching column from the year-old protest repertoire. “Putin finally go” was heard like a supplication. The mood was calm, however, said opposition activist Ilya Yashin, a long-time companion of Boris Nemtsov. People are no longer scared or intimidated. You are free, said Jashin.
Unexplained crime background
For the family and daughter Janna Nemzowa, the real organizer and mastermind is Ruslan Geremejew. The deputy commander of the “Sever” battalion, in which Saur Dadayev, a gunman, also served. Dadayev and Geremeiev knew each other well. When investigators Ruslan Geremeev looked for the murder in Chechnya, they stood in front of closed doors and pulled out undeveloped things.
The day before yesterday, President Vladimir Putin conferred the Order of Merit to a relative of Ruslan, the clan chief Senator Suleiman Geremeev from Chechnya. Geremeiev is said to have made a particular contribution to the legislation and development of parliamentarianism, it said in the laudation. Georgi Satarow, former head of the Kremlin Chancellery under Boris Yeltsin, called this “on the edge of the memorial march” a shameless and foul behavior “.
The Kremlin chief sent a clear signal of how little he cares about the law and the rule of law. Instead, he gathers his cohorts to be embalmed for the rest of life by the constitutional change planned for April to become the super president.
With the exception of President Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s rulers all died in office. Putin actually did not want to be “carried out of the Kremlin with his feet,” he said several times. He couldn’t convince Russian observers.
Virus protection due to disguise prohibited
The memorial march was peaceful. Also as protesters shouted to a Russian TV correspondent: “He is lying, the correspondent”. He was embarrassed by no answer: “It’s much more entertaining!”
On the occasion of the circulating coronavirus, the federal consumer protection authority recommended wearing a mask in the murmur of the march. The police, however, banned the “disguise” on the spot.
